Topic: Block Report: Bitcoin: Knowledge and Perceptions (Read 429 times)

I get what you are saying. Just be aware that Bitcoin is a complicated subject, which involves many difficult topics. Not everyone can be expert in every aspect. Monetary theory, cryptography, distributed computing, game theory are only of the few aspects one has to masters: so don’t expect everyone gets what you understand well.

I believe that is probably people who do not know details about bitcoin, not the people who never heard of it. I mean I get it, there is a good case to be made about the situation that would make it look like its people who never heard about it, but I just feel like majority of the people heard about it already, at least 70-80%+ of the people "heard" about it.

However, if we look at people who know what a blockchain is, that drops down a lot, and if we ask about decentralization? That’s even lower. Hence, I believe that if we take it even just a smidge of down into details, there are still majority of the people who do not know about those things.

It never hit me like that though. You buy fractions of lots in stock markets, you also buy fractions of gold (who the hell could afford an ounce as a first time buyer anyway), don't know why people saw Bitcoin differently, but I guess it's just because people see the whole BTC price everywhere and it doesn't occur you can buy parts of it. Or as you say, they feel like they're getting in early on a lowcap coin, waiting for the x100 dream.

Seriously mate? 51% do not know anything about crypto currency? That got my attention. In the world where bitcoin or bitcoin related stuff is always in talks, whether it’s our friends, schools and colleges, news, share market world the bitcoin word occurs everywhere these days.

Who are these peeps who does not know anything about bitcoin at all. I’m really surprised about this. Or does the peeps who fall in 51% are all from the worlds those corner where digitalisation is still unattended or awareness is still far from Internet. Definitely interesting topic to discuss further.

Over the years, I've tried to explain Bitcoin to many people, and unfortunately I've found that very few people eventually understand what you're talking about. If you try to explain to someone in the simplest and most objective way possible what Bitcoin is and how it works, and that person tells you that it is all a big scam, then we can conclude that some people simply refuse to accept knowledge for some reason.

From my personal experience, I could conclude that such negative attitudes can stem from the attitudes of local institutions such as central banks or various financial agencies that systematically send negative information to the public and thus certainly influence a lot of people to create a negative attitude towards Bitcoin.

If we take into account that most people in every country are blind followers of the system, I would wonder if the biggest obstacle is ignorance or fear of a system that has very effective ways to shape public opinion?

Same here, when I was a newbie I also think that btc is too expensive that is why I didn't buy it but later on I figured out that btc can be divided in smaller portions and you can also buy it this way. I think this was still included on the knowledge part, the op discussing about.

There are also people that knows that they can buy btc in factions but they still think that they can earn more on a much lighter coin because they can buy millions of it at a much cheaper cost. Btc/cryptos are not a secret anymore and many women are also involved because they know that they can earn an income if they invest and trade it. Most of them are from the third world country where the state of living is poor.

In developing countries the number of unbanked population is very high and these citizens need alternative source of payment. Around 57% of the population of Africa, around 95 million people, do not have a traditional bank account. This high number of unbanked people undoubtedly causes problems, as there are limited economic options to serve its citizens. Considering the benefits of the use of Bitcoin many people would be willing to adopt it. But they are hindered by government policies, infrastructural deficit and religious misconceptions. These challenges have greatly affected the spread of Bitcoin enlightenment and acceptance in these countries.The government must give the populance the options of using other currencies without restrictions. This would aid in the spread of the acceptance of Bitcoin. Infrastructural amenities like internet facilities and electric supply would be a big advantage in the quest of educating people about Bitcoin.

https://thefintechtimes.com/top-african-challenger-banks-helping-the-unbanked-through-mobile-services/

Not sure you understood the report or what I was quoting. It doesn't say anything like that at all.

Also, past data agrees the opposite is true about women. They're far less risk averse than men, which is why they are fewer women "investing" in Bitcoin.

However, according to this report, they see themselves as more knowledgeable and more open to utility-based knowledge -- as opposed to men who are more interested in it as a speculation/investment/moneymaking venture.

I'm curious, how many of those people who said that lack of knowledge is the main reason to not buy Bitcoin are going to actually put their time and learn about it. Because on one hand, it seems like there's a large pool of people who could become new buyers and thus push the price higher, on the other - those people might actually continue ignoring Bitcoin.

The "knowledge feeds optimism" basically is another fancy way of saying "if you know what bitcoin is all about, you would buy it, because if you know it, then you know it will go up". Basically anyone who understands bitcoin knows that they should invest asap. This is a good report, I highly support it, it is quite good to know that bitcoin is something that should be loved, and supported by others that say the same thing as well.

Knowledge is more valuable than money, if you know the right things, then you will never need money ever again in your life, but knowledge without a use is not a good thing, so you should know things that will benefit you, not useless facts.

The reason why women have higher percentage than men because they are more willing to take high risks. They are better prepare to lose anything they have when invested their money in Bitcoin. We all know that Bitcoin is really high risk investment, even men made long consideration to decide invest Bitcoin, but it doesn't apply to the women. The long process or consideration on men's mind made women become one step ahead, and that really makes sense when the data show us the fact.

Other than lack of knowledge I do think the technological problems that are always there for specific communities are a big challenge since they usually fail to integrate into the society dominated by fiat and my parents, think it's so volatile that they will lose everything in a matter of seconds which again might be dependent on your cognitive thinking about bitcoins, for me I do believe that it would go to the moon again and very soon as well, but again it's not a hindrance for traders so calling it just a currency might not be taking into consideration it's full potential as an asset, investment, trading tool, it's an active currency for sure and we will be seeing many reports in the future about them.

Interesting for me is a top reason is "it's too expensive" and that's also my personal experience, why people go buy shitcoins like Ripple instead of BTC, they don't get you can buy fractions of, and unit price feels too expensive for them.

Also... outside the Americas, more women than men think they know more about Bitcoin. Pretty unexpected.

Actually you're wrong.
If there would be lower volatility then the small traders will no longer earn so much (may no longer worth it) and the investors will earn steadily (even the faint hearted ones).
If there would be no volatility at all (which is probably not possible because of Bitcoin scarcity) then people would earn from loaning, like they do with fiat now.

So no matter what, people would keep getting profits. Just it will be different people and/or different ways, that's all.

I would just separate possession and use as two different categories when it comes to Bitcoin. Consequently, I have no doubt that at some point 10% of the world's population will own Bitcoin, but those who will try to use it as a currency will be much smaller, as is the case today. Some kind of absolute adaptation is something that will probably never happen, no matter how simple things are. Some people have very negative attitudes towards Bitcoin, and they find it difficult or never to change their attitudes.

The major problem Bitcoin is having is the that many countries have not taking it seriously so that it will not jeopardize individual economy status. Their are countries that had ban Bitcoin because of the threat it pose on currency of most countries. The restriction of Bitcoin in many countries had been because of fear of dumping fiat currency of such country because Bitcoin is currently serving as an investment and also a means of digital currency.


https://www.bitcanuck.ca/blog/crypto-blog-canada/bitcoin-status-worldwide/

Due to the volatility of Bitcoin many investors had considered it as a good investment just like other financial instruments.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LivingOnBitcoin/comments/7amkn9/how_many_people_are_using_bitcoin_by_country_map/

The problem is not that it is difficult to get information about bitcoin in our time, but that people may not have the desire to look for this information and the most common laziness.

I think many will agree with me that people are different: Some, with their diligence, get what they want, be it information or something material. Others, even with all the possibilities, for example, the presence of internet and access to info about bitcoin, under no circumstances do even minimal actions to study info about it. Therefore, it seems to me that in the form that bitcoin now exists, never 100 % of the world's population will not use it. This will require greatly simplifying everything for the benefit of users (as suggested by Square, for example), but the question is whether bitcoin will remain the same after that.

You also correctly noticed that many people don't physically have access to internet. Of course, with the development of technology, their number is decreasing, but still, not so fast due to hard-to-reach locations. I would also like to draw attention to the level of PC proficiency and the lack of it. Even now, when a PC is relatively cheap, not everyone has it, which also prevents bitcoin's spread. You can also add those people who have a PC at their disposal, but the level of ownership of this still doesn't allow them to start recognizing and using bitcoin. Although the widespread use of smartphones may partly compensate for this, but you understand that this is a completely different level of security and safety of funds.

In the case of Nigeria placing a Ban on Bitcoin,  the government has never come up to say that Religion made them not to accept bitcoin in the country, their claim has been their inability to regulate and control bitcoin and bitcoin-related activities in the country.  Religion has nothing to do with the bitcoin ban in Nigeria I think the main reason is because Nigerians saw the change that bitcoin will bring to her economy but her leaders felt her citizens will be liberated from financial dependency should bitcoin be accepted in Nigeria.

I totally agree with Block Inc report that lack of knowledge is the biggest problem of bitcoin adoption. In the case of Nigeria, based on local geographic metrics,Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, and Enugu states rank as the top five states with the highest interest in Bitcoin in Nigeria. And these states are located in the Southern part of the country which has a higher number of literates than the Northern part. The Southern part of the country is the hub of Bitcoin transactions because most people there are enlightened and understands the complexities of Bitcoin operations.  

The Northern part of Nigeria has the highest number of Muslims and some of them still practice the Sharia law. Most of them don't have interest in modernization hence, they reject any form of payments that they perceive promotes  Westernization. Like other Islamic countries the northern region is not accepting Bitcoin because of religious beliefs. While the Southern part are mostly Christians that have embraced Western cultures. This has affected their openness to accept alternate means of payment such as Bitcoin.



    

The fact that information exists online means absolutely nothing if the average person cannot understand it - and we see that at least 50% have admitted indirectly that they do not understand Bitcoin no matter how someone tries to explain it to them. You may be unaware (though not relevant to the topic) that 40% of the world's population still does not have access to the Internet...



If we look at the fact that Bitcoin has turned into a speculative asset from its original idea, then it all comes down to profit, right? You are a classic example of someone looking at it from that angle, at least judging by what you wrote. For consolation you are not alone in this, most are willing to sell in the end, it is just a question of at what price.

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Panama and the CAR have only recently (each in their own way) got into the Bitcoin story and may not have been able to be in this survey - and El Salvador for some reason was not interesting to the US-based research company. But for some reason they were interested in China, which they included in this research - although we know that China is the most hostile of all countries to Bitcoin.